This cache is part of a series of North Alabama Civil War Trail. The North Alabama Bientennial Passport is available from http://www.northalabama.org/.
The tour will take you around north Alabama to visit 20 historic sites. It will not be necessary to pay an admission charge to find any of the caches although some may charge admission to tour their facility. A paper punch will be in the cache and should be used to punch the appropriate spot on the passport. If you choose to find the cache before all caches and the passport are available just punch a piece of paper with the cache name and date found, this will be accepted for your coin. 200 trackable geocoins are available to the first 200 cachers to complete the series. Several locations in North Alabama will have the coins and their location is on the passport page of the above link.
The house was constructed prior to 1836, and was used as headquarters by both Union and Confederate forces, alternately, during the Civil War.
In 1862, before being occupied by Federal forces, the plans for the Battle of Shiloh were laid out within this building. Because of this, the house was spared when the city was burned, leaving only 2 other buildings standing in the city.
The official records, most of which are now housed at Tulane University, indicate that General Johnston's headquarters during the time he reorganized his Confederate forces in Decatur in March 1862 were at the McCarty (sic) Hotel. They also indicate that planning for attacking Grant's forces at Pittsburg Landing (the Battle of Shiloh) was done by Johnston's subordinate, General Beauregard, in Corinth, Mississippi.